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STG addresses increasing Business Continuity needs with new integrated software functionality
Strategic Thought Group (STG) has made available significant new capabilities for the management of business continuity within major organizations via new functionality built into its widely deployed Active Risk Manager software. Active Risk Manager Business Continuity Management (ARM BCM) addresses the need for assured business continuity and recovery in the event of major incidents, whether through catastrophic accidents, supply chain failures, pandemic illness, loss of IT systems, or any other major disruption to business processes.
ARM BCM facilitates the identification of business continuity threats, the assessment of the potential impact on the organization and provides control and monitoring software for the development and maintenance of the plans necessary to protect the business, if such events occur. It also provides detailed evaluations of these plans to ensure their continued effectiveness. This enables senior management to be aware and alert to the enterprise-wide status of these plans at any point in time. Such information is increasingly vital to be able to demonstrate a robust response to any major incident to safeguard business reputation and the company share price.
The different components of business continuity, crisis management and recovery have typically been handled through stand-alone processes and systems. ARM BCM ensures that these elements can all be managed within a single enterprise-wide, top-down economic context with a focus on critical business performance and corporate governance drivers.
Mark Brown, strategy director at Strategic Thought Group commented, “ARM integrates business continuity into the wider enterprise risk management (ERM) framework, bringing together related disciplines that have, up until now, been kept separate. ARM Business Continuity Management will increase confidence and transparency at all levels from the board down.”
ARM BCM presents management teams and governance boards with a single real-time dashboard of the status of all business continuity plans across the organization. This presents how the continuity and recovery plans link to the most important business continuity threats and key business processes thereby aiding the assessment of what the impact to the business could be if a disaster event occurred.
Brown added, “Business continuity is a critical part of corporate governance however most organizations never ask the basic questions about the enterprise-wide status of their BC plans and the links to the related corporate risks, controls and policy framework especially within the supply chain and with business partners. With ARM, business continuity threats are presented within an economic framework highlighting the financial options to decision makers. Senior management can apply direct investments to the most appropriate areas based on the latest company-wide information.”
ARM ensures that the case for each business continuity plan is evaluated in a risk-reward context against other investment business cases and prioritized accordingly. In addition the relationship between business continuity and related risks, including supply chain, IT and security risks, can be investigated. This will ensure potential benefits from areas such as insurance policy consolidation and premium reductions are not lost.
ARM BCM has been designed to support a range of international business continuity standards including the UK BS 25999, the US NFPA 1600, the Australian HB 221, the Singapore SS 540 and the international ISO 27001 standard.
ARM BCM is available to all Active Risk Manager customers.
Active Risk Manager from Strategic Thought Group plc
Strategic Thought Group plc (AIM:STR) addresses enterprise-wide risk management (ERM) requirements with advanced software and services that can be implemented across organizations in all industry sectors.
Active Risk Manager (ARM), is the world’s most widely deployed and the only truly comprehensive web-based ERM solution available today. ARM enables the identification, communication, analysis and mitigation of risks and opportunities available in both quantitative and qualitative formats. It covers project and portfolio risk, supply chain risk management, business continuity, reputational risk, health and safety, incident management, governance, compliance risks and more.
ARM is used by major organizations around the globe including USAF, EADS, British Nuclear Group, Rio Tinto, Lockheed Martin, Nestle, NASA, London Underground, Raytheon and SABIC. Strategic Thought Group, founded in 1987, is headquartered in the UK and its US operation, Strategic Thought Inc is based in Washington DC.
For further information and a detailed view of Strategic Thought's products and services visit www.strategicthought.com or call +44 (0)1628 582500 (EMEA) or +1 703 673 9580 (Americas).
